Avarice
by SvelsaFan
Summary: Avarice competes in the 2303 Unreal tournament. First having to fight his way through the qualification rounds, before even being able to compete in the real tournament. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N **

**This is my first ever attempt to write a story, and I have no idea how long it will be. This is a story about a competitor in the Tournament depicted in UT2004. Content based on own playthroughs, I played the single player campaign 3 times, on different difficulties.**

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It is the beginning of the twenty-fourth century. The qualifications for the twelfth edition of the Liandri Corporation's Unreal Tournament are about to start. Last year's winners, team Juggernauts, are set on proving that last year's win in the Tournament was no fluke, and with the same members that won the title are now the favourites for winning. This tournament, however, has the most high-hoping teams ever. But there is always room for new talent. Avarice, a genetically mutated human, is one of the contenders in the qualification rounds for this edition. He's highly trained in the use of the Flak Cannon and the Rocket launcher, but most of all he's a fantastic tactician. While his accuracy isn't the best, he often compensates this with the sheer firepower of his two favourite weapons.

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As Avarice walked into the grand hall of Liandri's building of Tournament Affairs, he is nothing but impressed by the grandeur of the hall. On the walls are 50 feet high portraits of the winning team's leaders of the past tournaments, with Gorge, the impressively large leader of team Juggernauts in the middle. On the floor is an enormous logo of this year's Unreal Tournament, constructed of pure gold and lapis lazuli. _God, changing that every other year must cost a fortune_, he thought. Looking at the detailing done on the walls and floor he walks over to the customer service desk.

"Hello sir, how can I help you?" the woman behind the desk asked.

"I've come to apply for participation in the qualification round for this year's tournament" Avarice said in his hoarse and aggressive voice.

"Oh, you must be on the opposite side of the hall for that, sir. Do you see the cyborgs behind the desks there?" Avarice nodded. "Well, that's where you have to be. Good luck sir!"

Without even thanking the lady, Avarice immediately walked to the desks. Luckily for him, there was no line, as it was still early in the morning. He looked over at the desk and before asking anything, he took a pamphlet with information about the possible dangers of participation. _Heh, danger. I know exactly what I'm getting in to. But how did the human saying go again… No guts, no glory – something like that. _Avarice crumpled the piece of paper into a small ball, and carefully tossed it towards a bin. He missed. Not seeming to mind, he walked over to the cyborg to finally register for his one and only shot at glory.

"I want to participate in the tournament. Is this where I can sign up for the qualification rounds?" He asked the stoic looking employee.

"You've come to the right place, sir. Here's a short form for you to fill, and I'll put you in the system right away!" The cyborg said in his way-too-gleeful voice.

_First name: Avarice. Last name: Does not apply. Planet of birth: Abbadon. Year of birth: 2218. Current occupation: Army training._

After a few more of such questions, Avarice turned over the now filled-in form to the cyborg. The latter opened his robotic 'third eye', a laser scanner, and quickly scanned the form. After not more than ten seconds, he smiled at Avarice. "There you go sir, within seven days you'll receive a holo-message with everything you should know. I think your first qualification match will be in fifteen days.

This time, Avarice thanked the employee heartily for his help, before walking out of the building. The main square of this district was just now starting to get as crowded as it would be for the rest of the day. Avarice quickly paced over to the monorail station. He wanted to get to the large shooting range as quickly as possible. There were only limited spots there, and he now needed all the time he could spare for practice. He got there at 11 AM.

Hoping he was not too late, he ran into the large building used for shooting practice and teamwork practice. On the notification board he saw there was only 58 spots left. Relieved that he came just in time, Avarice scanned his member card and went to the changing room.

Having put on his armour pieces, he walked into the long corridor leading to the individual shooting ranges. After a few minutes of looking for an empty place to jack up his skills a little, he walked into the gun room. A selection of the standard guns used all around the civilized galaxy was neatly in a wooden cabinet, with a large stockpile of ammo for each gun next to it.

His first choice of the day was his beloved Rocket Launcher. The name of the weapon very much describes it's use: the Rocket Launcher fires a rocket, which explodes when it hits something. The maximum amount of rockets shot at one time is 3, although that takes charging. The rockets then travel relatively slowly towards the goal.

The goals in the shooting range were nothing more than titanium plates though. He put them on 'moving in lines, fast' and started shooting. As expected with one of his favourite weapons, every single shot he fired hit. Even the big blasts of an exploding rocked didn't do more than scratching the targets.

After practicing with a few other weapons, Avarice decides it's time to play an actual match of Team Deathmatch, against real opponents. Hoping some of his training buddies are there as well, he walks into the matchmaking room. There's not many people, but a Skaarj duo seems ready to fight a 2 versus 2 battle. Avarice scans the room for someone he knows, until he sees George, a black man who measures around 7 feet high, and is at least 3 feet 5 wide.

"George, you in for some fun? Those Skaarj over there seem to be ready to battle, maybe we should make them less eager to come here ever again!" Avarice shouted to his friend.

"Sure, Av! I don't like them folk anyway! Always been pretentious, even after they lost the war to the human master race!" He shouts back, making sure the Skaarj can actually hear him.

Together they walk up to the Skaarj and challenge them to battle. The Skaarj, eager to defend their pride against humans, agree without even thinking about it twice. Avarice inspected the two. _Quite the fighters, these guys. They look like fast runners, and I'm sure they're aggressive enough to do some serious damage to us, but all in all they're still Skaarj, so their teamwork shouldn't be more than terrible, _he thought. The four of them pushed the buttons to request a match. "Match starting in 5 minutes", a female voice announced in their headsets.

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**A/N **

**First chapter is done, guys! So glad I could finally make a start :D Next chapter will of course be the 2v2 Team Deathmatch, and after the match some plot, of course. Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review ****:)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: My first review! Thank you so much for your constructive criticism! Hope I don't disappoint with this chapter :)**

**A bit of a longer chapter than last time, actually this is more the length I want to get to every chapter. Enjoy!**

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The rules were simple. If a suit of armour registers that it has zero hit points left, the wielder of that armour will be teleported back to the starting point of his or her team. You can pick up extra hit points in small and bigger boxes around the map, which will help you survive longer. Weapons are spread out across the map, every weapon on the same spot on each of the two sides of the map. One is able to replenish ammo by picking up ammo boxes lying around the floor. The goal: Sending the opposing players back to their starting point 75 times. Avarice and George were team Red, the Skaarj formed the blue team.

Five minutes later all of them were teleported to the arena. Avarice and George, standing next to each other, knew exactly what to expect from their team mate. George was the cold, calculating kind of guy. His favourite weapon was the Shock Rifle, a weapon for which great aiming skill was needed. Avarice, on the other side, was the exact opposite of that: He was always driven by anger and great passion, rushing in when it would have been better to wait for the enemy to come, and occasionally overestimating his chances terribly. Where George preferred the gracefulness of the Shock Rifle, Avarice preferred blast power, most of the time being able to annihilate his enemy in two shots or less.

When the three second countdown was done, Avarice immediately ran to the left. That's how he and George always did it, one left; one right. Running through the map Avarice was looking for weapons. You started off with a shield and a weak Assault Rifle, but that wasn't going to cut it. He needer real weapons, before he encountered an enemy. He ran around the corner and there was the first weapon: the Bio Rifle. This weapon shot poisonous bubbles of jelly, that stuck to your body when it hit you. Not a great weapon, but some famous fighters were renowned for using it. _At least with this I can do some damage, _Avarice thought. He was now running through a long hallway. The scoreboard said 2-3. George was in heated battle, while he himself couldn't find anyone! _Fuck, nobody's gonna be here. I gotta find a decent weapon and head over the the other side. _Avarice used his fastest technique of moving and speeded to the other side. On the way he found a Link Gun. _Finally something I stand a chance with._

He came just in time to saw George get double teamed by the Skaarj. He jumped right into the fray, and started shooting one of the aliens. Luckily for him, George already damaged them quite a bit, so he fragged one of them without dying. The other Skaarj just finished off George, and now turned to Avarice. Avarice immediately noticed the Skaarj's use of the Flak Cannon. _Fuuuuck, I don't stand a chance if I don't move well. But if I'm able to finish him off, I have the Flak Cannon and I just need some more health packs._ Dodging to the right avarice kept shooting his green slime at the enemy. Because of his dodging manoeuvre, he only got hit for half the damage. He finished off his opponent and went off to find health. When he focused on finding and killing enemies again, he noticed the score was now 7-7. He pushed the enemy's terrain and got the Skaarj a few times. Now Avarice was in his element.

After a few minutes of mainly destroying his enemies, Avarice was pretty sure that they'd win this game. _Well, that's not more than expected. If I want to compete in the Tournament I'll have to be able to finish such amateurs quite easily..._ And that was what he did. While George was his inferior by a mile, he still managed to kill the Skaarj a few times. Avarice, on the other hand, was doing a lot better. He shot one of the enemies and walked around the corner. The other one shot a shock charge right in his face. Avarice quickly jumped back and killed him too. "DOUBLE KILL!", his headset shouted in his ears. After he killed another Skaarj, he had gotten 5 in a row. "KILLING SPREE" was the message to him this time. His team had now scored 37 points, and their opponents only 14. Even against these losers, getting 10 kills in a row would be big.

One kill later his headset told him that his Adrenaline was full. You got adrenaline by picking up pills around the map and by killing enemies. There were 4 boosts available when your adrenaline meter got up to 100: Speed, Regeneration, Rage, and Invisibility. He chose for the Rage bonus. His rate of fire was now higher for half a minute, and the enemies he hit were knocked back further than normal. When he had gotten 4 more kills his bonus ended. He now had shot nine Skaarj in a row and was getting nervous for the tenth. In the central point of the map, a hall with two levels of balconies around the walls, he jumped around a bit looking for enemies in the adjacent corridors. What he didn't see was a Skaarj with a sniper rifle coming up on the highest balcony.

The next second Avarice was back in his base. _Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuck I need to fucking get a hold of myself and destroy them with fucking ease! _Getting mad at himself, Avarice ran through the corroding map towards the Rocket Launcher. When he picked it up, together with some extra ammunition for it, he gave himself another little pep talk. _Come on Avarice. You can do this, they're not the worst Skaarj you'll face during the next few months. You don't hear George complaining do you? Now get going and show those losers who's the best here. _He sprinted to the other side of the map and rocketed the enemy walking there. _BOOM_. The score was now 47-18, so the match was almost two-third over. He went on easily destroying his enemies with his Launcher, until he was up to 8 kills in a row again.

Avarice didn't have any ammo left for his gun. The only other weapon he cared to pick up along the way was the Link Gun. He switched over to it, but knew that the less powerful gun meant he had to be more careful. He couldn't just jump in a room and spam rockets around, he had to carefully aim his plasma charges. So that's what he did. Link charges travel way faster than rockets so at a longer range Avarice was now deadly, and he showed it. He killed one enemy, so he had only one to go. The next second he got him too. "DOMINATING", his announcer said through the headset. Avarice felt the real adrenaline - so not the power-up-giving one - rush through his body.

While Avarice was doing excellent, George wasn't so much. Even though people rarely used it during training matches, he decided to send his team member a voice request for support. Avarice responded with "Affirmative". He ran over to George as quickly as he could, finding him hiding behind a few crates, under heavy fire of a Minigun and a Shock Rifle. Avarice jumped behind the crates and made clear that they would jump out at the same time, both shooting the same enemy. The other enemy, who was still alive after a few seconds, had foolishly attempted to kill Avarice, so now George finished him off.

The rest of the match proceeded in the same way: Avarice died a few times, but killed a lot of enemies while working together with the (also occasionally dying) George. They won with 75 points against 27. When they were teleported out of the map, they couldn't help but notice what a terrible losers the Skaarj were. Blaming each other for their loss, the truth was they both didn't stand a chance against Avarice. Avarice, of course, wanted to rub in his enormous victory and walked over.

"Didn't go so well for ya, did it?" Avarice asked with a wide grin on his face.

"Fuck you. You just surprised us. That's all. Next time we'd beat the hell outta you, puny human", he got as a response.

"There will be no next time. This is the last time I'll ever fight against opponents as unworthy as the two of you. Now go wash yourselves, you stink." Avarice concluded, and then he walked back to George so they could laugh at their victory together.

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Two weeks had passed, and Avarice had been training as much as he could. He avoided playing in teams though, because he probably would have to play different styles in the Tournament. But that was for later concern. Avarice's holo-message just arrived through mail! He pushed the open-button on the little box, and it unfolded into the standard metal plate with a hologram projector. The Announcer appeared in the air.

"Hello, contender! Are you looking forward to DOMINATING" - Avarice grinned at the pun - "the twelfth Liandi Unreal Tournament? Recruit, you are expected on Planet Earth in 2 days, where we will determine your statistics! You shall fight 4 deathmatches in Qualification, after which the Tournament might start for you! Be prepared, show your GODLIKE skills, and become UNSTOPPABLE!"

The Announcer disappeared, and Avarice had gotten a grim look on his face. Despite trying to make the message funny, it was still a serious matter to every contender. Avarice had to get ready to travel to Earth quickly, if he wanted to have some spare time to get accustomed to the planet's atmosphere.

Luckily he didn't have much stuff to pack. He quickly crammed some clothes in a bag and looked for the only valuable item he owned. He panicked when it wasn't at it's usual spot on the bedside cabinet. He pulled open the drawers with force, and when he saw it wasn't in there he threw his lamp on the ground so hard it shattered into a hundred pieces. Stomped over to his wardrobe and opened it. It wasn't there. He slammed the door shut and ran to the living room, where he barely spent any time. Then he saw it on the kitchen table. Relieved, he walked over there and picked up the small, solid golden statuette.

The figurine depicted a man hanging from a large cross, with nails spiked through his hands and feet. His father, who was an antiquarian, had one big passion: he was an avid goldsmith. The order that would make him the best-known goldsmith on entire Purgatory was for an ancient cult. He coated statues in gold, made golden chandeliers, but his magnum opus was forging a three meter high statue. As an extra reward for a job well done, the cult gave him the gold needed to create a miniature of that huge statue. Engraved on the bottom of the statue was his father's first name: Succubus. Avarice's father died shortly after this task, so it was the only keepsake he had of his father.

Snapping out of the moment of emotion, Avarice's face hardened again and he carefully put the statuette in the bag. As he didn't have any personal means of transportation, he took the monorail to the space port. A spaceship left for planet Earth every hour, so he didn't have to wait long. He just had enough money to pay for a one-way trip, but he bought his ticket anyway, and took a seat. After a few moments of waiting, he boarded his very basic ship, and went on his way to the tournament.

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**A/N: Woo! He is on his way! First match played, I really hoped you liked it because it's pretty hard writing a detailed match description. Also, some character development stuffs so I hope y'all like it and stay tuned for next chapter. My goal is to upload every Sunday from starting next (so not coming) Sunday. Please don't forget to leave a review because they really help :)**


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